


anytime, anywhere

by tastybaby



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: (a little bit? hopefully more soon), F/M, Pining, Post-Canon, Sleepovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:55:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23195866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tastybaby/pseuds/tastybaby
Summary: Sonia didn’t call him out of the blue very often, and he knew she was busy preparing for the conference in Wyndon next week, so he hadn’t had much time to catch up with her lately.--“I have a big, fat favor to ask of you.”
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Sonia
Comments: 2
Kudos: 59





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this was a request from sango, who asked for "some dnsn sweetness," and mentioned leon quietly loving sonia, and her having no idea about it. :) my requests are closed rn but may open again soon!

“Hey, Leon,” Sonia’s voice came through, clear and casual and charming as ever. “Sorry for the random call. Is this a good time to talk?” 

Leon slowed from a sprint to a jog, but thought better of it and dropped to a walk, fingering the hem of the towel around his shoulders.

“Yeah, you’re good. Everything okay?” he asked cheerfully, breathless but attentive. Sonia didn’t call him out of the blue very often, and he knew she was busy preparing for the conference in Wyndon next week, so he hadn’t had much time to catch up with her lately. 

“Mm. Yes, kind of. Well,” Sonia heaved a deep sigh, and he could hear her voice sinking.

“Well?”

“I have a big, fat favor to ask of you.”

“Anything, Sonia, don’t worry about it,” he eased. He could hear the concern in her voice. She sounded pretty stretched thin, from the way she was so low-energy and quiet, and he heard her sigh again.

“I don’t know how I managed it, but I booked my hotel for the wrong week. Everything’s booked up now—I couldn’t even get anything in _Circhester!_ So I was wondering, if it’s not too much of a bother, maybe—”

“You can stay with me. It’s okay, relax,” he laughed, and Sonia started to unwind herself on the other line.

“I really don’t mind commuting from Wedgehurst every day if it’s too short notice,” she offered, but he was ready to dissuade her.

“No trouble at all. I know you have a lot of work to do, so don’t worry about it. I’m gonna be there for two of the five days anyway, so it would’ve made sense for you to stay with me regardless. 

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

“Thank you so much, Leon,” he heard her smile through the phone, “I really owe you. Seriously! I have to get back to work, but I’ll text you later, ‘kay?” 

“Sounds good. Don’t worry about it. Talk to you soon.” 

She hung up, and Leon felt his heart racing in his ears. Charizard was lingering behind him, curious and concerned, but seemed to perk up when Leon turned to him with a big, stupid grin on his face. 

“C’mon, buddy, we gotta get home and tidy up. Sonia’s coming to visit!” Leon laughed, and Charizard dipped his shoulders down for him to hop on. He hummed to himself the whole ride home.

Home, but with a quick stop at the marketplace to grab some extra cleaning towels and a fresh filter for the vacuum. He ended up spending too much time picking up various potted plants and looking them over as if he had any idea how to take care of them, but Sonia really liked houseplants, and he wanted another conversation piece. Maybe he could gift them to her? Or just have her teach him how to care for them? Either way, he left the store with his filter, his towels, and an armful of potted plants of varying sizes. 

Sonia had visited his apartment before, but it had been a while, and if she was going to be here for a full _week_ , it wasn’t like there was room to be shoving things in closets or sweeping them under rugs. Leon cleaned and polished every surface he could find, and then rearranged his furniture twice before putting it back where it originally was. He kept watching the clock to see if the hour would change, because Sonia was going to be staying with him in two days, and he couldn’t bear to wait another minute to see her. 

Finally, _finally_ , he got a text that she was leaving home, and that she’d be there in an hour. He spent the first half of it pacing around his living room, dusting things he’d already dusted twice, and the second half trying to figure out the air mattress he’d bought online. He was in the middle of squinting at the tiny print of the instruction booklet when a knock on the door sent him jumping out of his skin. 

“How was your flight?” Leon asked, pulling her in for a hug. It was a privilege he’d been savoring for the last few years, but even still, he had to watch himself to make sure he didn’t linger with his arms around her waist for too long. Feeling her hand in his shoulder, Leon pulled back enough to meet her eyes. She must have been wearing shorter heels than normal, because he was looking down at her. 

“Just fine. Not too bumpy or anything,” Sonia beamed, and Leon almost felt his knees buckle at the way her brows turned up and she smiled gratefully at him. “I really can’t thank you enough, love.” 

“You can, and you already have!” he sprang back, energized by her arrival. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t think you should _ever_ have to pay for a hotel in Wyndon as long as I’m here anyway.” 

“That’s very kind of you,” she accepted with grace, and Leon watched her wheel in two suitcases behind her, one with a duffle bag fastened to the top of it. Sonia never packed light, but for a week’s trip, it still amused him how much she brought with her. He figured she had some special things for the conference, but one of those bags was probably stuffed to the brim with cosmetics and emergency back-up pencil sharpeners too. 

“Can I help you with those?” he asked, gesturing to her bags.

“I’m okay. I’ll be dragging one around everywhere next week anyway,” she removed her shoes by the door and swept a glance over his apartment. He felt small under her appraising gaze, but the smile on her face settled him. “You’ve finally put some greenery in here! It looks good,” she admired, reaching out to examine a leaf on one of the bigger ones. “This place is starting to look less like a man cave. Very homey.” She shot him a teasing look, and Leon ate it up. 

“I was just setting up the air mattress when you got here,” he explained, opening the door to his bedroom. “For me, of course. You’re welcome to sleep on the bed.”

“Please, you’ve already done enough, I’m not gonna take your bed from you,” Sonia said, but she was already trotting over to plop down on it. 

Leon felt like she deserved it, because he knew she was still sleeping on the queen-sized mattress she’d had since she was a teenager, and she had a lot of public speaking to do next week. He was only going to be there for two days, and he didn’t mind sleeping on an air mattress if it meant better sleep for her.

“Your bed’s huge. I don’t see why we can’t just share.” Leon halted, and took time to process what she said. He had to repeat it in his head a few times to make sure he hadn’t misheard her. Sonia was watching him nonchalantly with one knee crossed over the other, palms spreading out over the newly-washed comforter he’d laid out for her. “It’s not like we didn’t do it all the time as kids. We’re friends.”

“We _are_ friends,” Leon repeated with a dry throat, shrugging to conceal the sting that left in him. 

He and Sonia were friends. She loved to mention it, and while he was daydreaming about finally working up the courage to lace their fingers together, she was off discovering fossils and lost records of the nation’s history telling people all about her great friend Leon, former champion, owner of the Battle Tower.

“Speaking of which,” Sonia reached over to fish through her duffle bag, and Leon wondered briefly if she was changing the subject. “I didn’t know how to thank you, so I figured I’d bring you some presents!”

Sonia held up a handful of sandwich bags filled with what looked like sugar cookies, cut in the shapes of hearts, lightning bolts, and Yamper paws. Each bag was addressed to one of the pokémon he trained competitively. 

“Home-made treats for your team,” she beamed proudly. “I made them last night. Each one should have a good amount of vitamins, too.” Leon accepted them from her like they were precious stones. 

“Thank you, Sonia. I’m sure it was a lot of work for y—“

“And then, for us!” she continued, brandishing a bottle of wine with a ribbon around the neck, her lips pulling away to reveal the remnants of her overbite. The braces changed a lot, but Leon still found her slightly-off-balance smile as charming and comforting as it was before them.“I know you love the sweet stuff, so I picked this up from a cute little place in Hulbury on my way in. Kalosian import.” 

“Oh, yeah?” Leon looked over the bottle. “I can’t read any of that.” 

“The language is really flowery, so I dunno how to translate it _exactly_ , but it’s something like, ‘Grepa berries from the jewel of Kalos,’ I think?”

“You didn’t have to do all of this,” Leon softened and sat down next to her, leaning back against his palms. “I should have been offering to do it in the first place.”

“That’s really sweet, but I really don’t mind staying in a hotel. I’m not very fun to be around during crunch time.” 

She laid her hand on his, which almost made him jump, but it was warm, and her thumb sweeping over the back of his knuckles was soothing. They watched each other for a moment, but then, just as Leon was about to open his mouth, Sonia whipped away. 

“Anyway,” she grinned, holding up her bottle. “Can I crack this open?”

“Be my guest,” Leon watched her, wistful, and brushing his thumb over the back of his hand. Sonia hopped off his bed and made her way to the kitchen. 

“You still only have two wine glasses?” Sonia scoffed, You’re getting a set for your birthday. Gracious sakes.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> brief mentions of anxiety in the very end of this chapter. nothing graphic, but i just wanted to let you know!  
> big thanks to arias and mer for both beta-ing this one!! :,) (if there are still typos that is MY fault though LOL)

A glass of wine into the night, Sonia had taken it upon herself to rifle through his kitchen and cook him “a proper meal,” under the assumption that he mostly ate instant meals and takeout. She wasn’t completely wrong, and although he did cook a few times a week, his culinary style was very utilitarian, and lacked the personal touch that a home-cooked meal should provide. 

Sonia’s cooking was a different story entirely, and that was made abundantly clear the moment he smelled garlic wafting through the air in his apartment. He sat by his counter and watched her buzz around, making herself right at home, and occasionally looking over her shoulder to make a remark about what kind of pans he had, or how he only had one spatula.

“So, what’ve you been up to?” Sonia asked, moving something delicious around in his frying pan.

“You already asked me that, remember?” 

“I...did?” Leon laughed behind the back of his hand.

“You did. We just had a whole conversation about training a new receptionist so that mine could go on vacation.”

“Oh, yeah! And the missing sticky note pad. I was listening, sorry, I just,” Sonia shifted to look at him. “Sorry. I just have a lot of scary stuff to do tomorrow.”

“Scary stuff?” Leon reached over to pick something out of the pan, but she swatted him away. Sonia had been a little scattered since she’d arrived. She kept interrupting him to run off in a different direction, like she was avoiding something. He had sort of chalked it up to Sonia being her anxious self, and while he was worried, he hadn’t thought to pry. It sounded like she wanted to talk about it now, though.

“Scary stuff,” Sonia affirmed, turning off the flame and nursing her glass. “There’s this weirdo fat cat philanthropist that wants to give me a ton of money to work on some passion project for him. I could use it, but he wants results in like, half the time I would be able to deliver. He’s going to this thing, and I’ve been putting off giving him an answer for weeks.” Leon was familiar with having to turn powerful people down, and it was never a comfortable conversation. People with money tended to get what they wanted, and when you didn’t deliver, they wouldn’t know how to react other than lashing out in some way or another. 

“Yikes, that sounds awful,” Leon’s brows knitted together in concern. “Well, I’ll be in town, so you can always call me if you need me.”

“Thanks.”

They lingered for a moment. Sonia was watching him over the rim of her glass, fingers delicately wrapped around the stem. He was admiring her manicure when she moved to set it down. 

“Anyway! I don’t have to think about any of that until tomorrow. Let’s eat our pasta.” 

“Smells amazing,” Leon chimed in, eyes still searching for hers as she turned away.

* * *

He left her and Yamper in the evening to go work out. It wasn’t part of his normal routine to go jogging this time of night, especially without Charizard, but he needed some alone time, and the weather was nice enough that he didn’t have to fuss with a jacket. He had his headphones in, and he was turning the corner out of his neighborhood by the time he even remembered to press play. 

He’d opted for something slower this time. It still had to have enough of a beat that he could follow it, but he was in the mood to zone out and go wherever his feet took him, so something cloudy and dreamy suited the mood better. Leon never worried about getting lost on nights like this—as long as he stayed in this meditative headspace, his body would always lead him home when it was ready. This part of the city was more or less on a grid, too, so even if he did get lost, he could usually just use math to get home. 

It felt good to be out here alone, with his shoes absorbing the shock of the paved walkways, and his hair bouncing off his neck with each landing step. It felt good to have a home-cooked meal with someone sitting across him from the table. It felt good to catch up with Sonia. 

He felt guilty about not telling her, but he almost felt like telling her would never be anything other than selfish. It was clear she saw him as a great friend, and he treasured that, but the love he’d been cultivating in his heart was not living in hers. No amount of yearning would change that, and burdening her with the task of breaking his heart would do even less.

Leon figured he would get over it anyway. Sure, it had been years since this started—or at least since he’d been conscious of it—but everything would fade in time. He valued her friendship too much to risk changing anything now, and she probably didn’t have time for a relationship even if she wanted one. She was too busy fighting off ill-intentioned philanthropists and speaking at conferences, apparently. 

His phone buzzed while he was waiting at the crosswalk a few blocks away. It was a photo from Sonia, with Yamper curled up next to Charizard in his living room. It looked like they were grooming each other.

_ We should hang out more often! These two seemed to miss each other. _

_ Absolutely!  _ he replied,  _ Thanks for the pic. _

‘Thanks for the pic?’ Who even said shit like that?

Sonia had made herself right at home by the time he returned. There was some soft pop music filtering through his speaker in his bedroom. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of his mirror, with damp hair and in some sort of punishingly cute pajama set, combing out her wet curls with a wide-tooth comb. 

“Hey, you,” he mused from the doorway. 

“Hey,” Sonia smiled at him through the mirror. “I fixed your shower.” 

“Was there something wrong with it?” Leon set down his phone to charge and started filing through his drawers for something to wear to bed. Sonia scoffed and turned to look at him in disbelief. 

“Are you  _ joking?  _ The hot water was off!” she pointed her comb at him, sharp with accusation. “You’re pulling my damn leg. The water was  _ freezing,  _ you didn’t notice?”

“Oh? Uh, I thought my showers had been a little brisk lately,” Leon replied in earnest. “Thank you.” 

Sonia had her palm pressed to her cheek. 

“Leon, I worry about you sometimes.”

“Nah, I just take really quick showers. Didn’t even phase me,” he admitted, feeling sheepish behind her eyes and fumbling for his towel on the hook. “Speaking of which, if you’ll excuse me.” He ducked into his little en suite.

“Make it a long, hot one! For my sake!” Sonia teased from the other side of the door.

“I’ll do what I can.”

As if he needed another reason to sit under the water and wallow in her? 

The steam was relaxing, and the heat on his back eased the tension in his shoulders.

He had reasons to be stressed about this conference, too. People were still campaigning for him to take over the league—something he was not interested in, and had been communicating his disinterest in as gracefully as possible for over a year—and there was no doubt in his mind that it would come up at the panel he was attending this week. Even now, it was hard for the people of Galar to let their former champion disappear from the limelight, no matter how much he did to separate the Battle Tower from the league. They were separate things that completed separate objectives—one to hone your skills as a trainer and experiment with different tactics, and one for appeasing sponsors with manufactured child celebrities. 

Being angry about the misguidance of the league did little more than distract him enough to get shampoo in his eye, so he winced with his face under the steam until the stinging stopped. 

He didn’t bother putting on a shirt before leaving the restroom. It was nothing Sonia hadn’t seen before—at this point, he wasn’t sure there was anyone in Galar with an internet connection that somehow  _ hadn’t _ seen him shirtless—and it would have been soaked within minutes from his hair, anyway. Instead, he emerged with a towel around his shoulders and a clean pair of sweatpants, and Sonia paid him no mind while she lounged around on her stomach in his bed.

“How was it?” she asked, nose buried in what looked like a notebook.

“Warm,” he shrugged, stretching his arms over his shoulders to tie his hair out of the way. It was probably still going to be wet in the morning, given the time, but he could just get up early and style it then anyway. “Thank you for fixing my water heater, though.”

“My pleasure.” 

Leon never really knew how to pass the time around this time of night. It was too soon to go to bed, but he already ate and worked out, so all that really left was to find a way to entertain himself. He wasn’t very good at that. Sonia was here, but she looked like she was working on something, so he ended up idling around near his closet, picking out clothes for tomorrow’s panel instead. Once those were hung on his mirror, he was once again out of things to do. He eyed the projector sitting on his nightstand.

“Do you...mind if I throw on a movie or something?” Leon asked, crouching to sift through a bookshelf full of DVDs. 

“Ugh. Please. I need a break from this.” Sonia shut her notebook and slid it under a pillow.

“Any requests?”

“No romance.”

“Oh yeah?” Leon raised a brow at her, and she flushed. He wanted to press further, but the time wasn’t right, so he let it go. “Horror, action, comedy?”

“A little of everything?”

“I’m sure there’s something in here.” 

“When did you become such a movie buff?” Sonia swung her legs off the bed and trotted over, kneeling next to him to sift through his selections.

“I’m not. Haven’t even seen most of these,” he confessed, but with no hint of remorse or shame in his voice. Most of them were gifts or impulse-purchases. He remembered people saying he was going to have a lot of time on his hands once he wasn’t champion anymore. Even now, he was unfittingly busy for a retired athlete, but he probably wouldn’t have been able to handle that much free time, anyway. 

Sonia ended up picking something that fit the comedy-action-horror genre, and it was awful. They criticized it for the whole two hours. At some point, one of them got up to get some snacks, and by the end, both of them were slipping Yamper handfuls of crisps between sarcastic remarks. 

“Just abhorrent, that film,” Sonia lamented, rolling down the edges of the bag so that she could pinch some crumbs into her mouth.

“Agreed,” Leon reached over to steal a sip of wine from her glass. “It was an excellent choice, though.”

“Thanks,” she beamed with pride. Sonia’s love of bad movies wasn’t a secret by any stretch of the imagination. Leon liked watching them with her, though, because she always had something funny to say. 

Eventually, they had to put the snacks away and head to bed. Leon was going to be getting up first, so he let her sleep on the side against the wall, and he hung his arm over the other side of the bed. He felt like he was way too big to be sharing his bed with her comfortably, so he lined himself up against the edge and tried to shrink as much as possible to afford her a respectful distance between the two of them. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, but he ended up dozing off after he stopped hearing the pages of her notebook turning.

* * *

“Leon.”

“Mm?”

“Are you awake?” her voice came in barely above a whisper, but stained with restraint and urgency that he knew all too well.

“Yeah?” he roused himself enough to speak clearly. “Everything okay?”

“I’m,” she sighed, and he could feel the mattress shift as she rolled to face him. “I’m super anxious.” Sonia spoke slowly, like she was telling him a deadly secret. “I don’t know. My heart’s gonna jump out of my mouth or something.”

“What can I do?”

Sonia seemed to make herself smaller. He could feel her deflating and curling in on herself, condensing as much as possible to try and force the feeling away.

“I...don’t know. Sorry. I shouldn’t have woken you up. Go back to sleep, I’ll—it’ll pass.”

When he turned to face her, he could barely make her out in the dark. There was a little bit of city light coming in through the window, and it was just enough for him to find her eyes. She was watching him, too, and he was about to open his mouth when she spoke again.

“Leon, can I have a hug?”

The vulnerability in her voice knocked the wind out of him, so all he could do was wrap an arm around her. 

“Sorry,” she repeated.

  
“You’re fine.” Leon smoothed his hand over her back. Her heart  _ was _ racing, but he could also feel the tension in her shoulders beginning to subside. 


End file.
